Iona: Mental Health Support

I have enjoyed this app. Like many others, I’ve fallen apart during this pandemic and finally wanted to take time to learn to deal with it alongside my medicine. I found Iona thanks to Reddit and decided to give it a try. I think it is well done and it has been like I always have a friend I can reach out to. My only nitpicking thing is saying “ok” a lot, but that’s mainly just because I’m very polite and I want to show more gratitude...but I suppose that is silly when it’s AI. Anyway, despite that, I have found this app to be very useful and will be recommending it to people in my life.

This is a really thorough and well rounded app, in my opinion it’s good for everyone, whether or not you have anxiety, depression or other issues. It is so important to keep the mind healthy and this app provides many starting points and innovative ideas to help you along the way. With this app it is always your journey and you dictate the speed. I thoroughly enjoy using it and it has become my daily companion

Just now I opened up the Iona app and was going to start working with it again and, wow, I can’t believe that it says “to access this conversation, you need to be a premium member.” If you’re struggling and you didn’t know that this app was going to try to charge you money, that’s a slap in the face. I feel completely baited and switched. I have been recommending this app to friends, and now I’m embarrassed to have done so without the knowledge that it would suddenly, in the middle of a “session,” beg for money. That is so tacky and appalling in a mental health app. I know you need to make money, but this is not the way to do it. Below is my previous review: I can’t afford a therapist right now and have had bad therapists in the past who didn’t help or even hurt me, so I have been trying to find ways to help myself. I’m listening to a self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy book called “Feeling Good,” and this app is a great complement to it. I also think the app by itself would be helpful. I try to spend a few minutes a day going through the exercises, and it really is helping me a lot. I like the chat bot element — it feels more like I’m working with a real therapist. I plan to continue using the app, and I have been recommending it to my friends.